Fantastic Four #18: Reed’s Stretchy Body 38

Fantastic Four #18, page 7, panel 3

Written by: Stan Lee

Drawn by: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Lettering: Art Simek

Away from the dastardly plotting on the Skrull planet, the Fantastic Four are going shopping. But because this is decades before the media-savvy 2000s, they completely fail to do anything to conceal their presence in the store. So, it’s no surprise that a riot breaks out when the shoppers discover bona fide celebrities in their midst.

Thankfully, being super-heroes, they can easily escape, with Reed using his body to create a sort of retractable escape pole. Except that’s not what it is at all, but it’s fairly hard to describe. What I do like is that it’s Reed retracting his body, dragging Johnny and Sue out from the mob. Even if I’m clearly struggling to analogise it!